Chapter 265 The ‘Sun’ Rises as Usual

"Passed the second track point and entered the reconnaissance area. The belly reconnaissance component is activated."

"Current altitude 12,000 meters, speed 5.1 Mach."

"The adaptive variable cycle engine has switched to 'supersonic cruise mode'. The current working condition is good and the fuselage surface temperature is normal."

In the cockpit of the Swift supersonic reconnaissance aircraft, pilot Jacob heard the information reported by the onboard AI in a sweet female voice.

The Swift does not have a glass canopy. There are only some instruments and display screens in the fully enclosed cockpit.

But the integrated head display on Jacob's head, which integrates optical sensors from various parts of the fuselage, still clearly displays the picture under the belly in front of him.

At this time, visible flames are constantly bursting out in various parts of the city of Ptolemy.

And Jacob doesn't even need to look at the picture synthesized by the belly reconnaissance component. Just by looking at the movement of the exchange of fire with the naked eye, he can see that the coalition forces have completely occupied the outer defense line and advanced a long way into the city.

Jacob looked at a virtual mark on the integrated head display screen - that was the location he needed to focus on during this penetrating reconnaissance flight.

He blinked, and an optical sensor on the belly of the aircraft immediately enlarged the screen according to the "preset instructions".

"Fuck, did this blow up the building?"

Looking at the building "lying" on the road like a Snorlax, Jacob couldn't help but exclaimed.

Of course, this exclamation was made in his heart. Pilots would not do such unnecessary actions in the state of supersonic flight.

At the same time, the images taken by the reconnaissance aircraft were quickly transmitted back to the headquarters.

When Hogg and his team saw this scene and the signs of continuous exchanges of fire around them, they knew that the special operations team was probably in trouble.

"Notify the self-propelled artillery group to detach 20 self-propelled artillery and prepare to support the special operations team!"

Hogg gave the order without hesitation, asking the self-propelled artillery group to prepare for support in advance.

The headquarters and the special operations team had discussed some details of the operation before. Hogg knew that if the special operations team was in an emergency, it would call for fire support from the rear.

After Hogg's order was passed down, 20 self-propelled artillery lowered their barrels and switched back to marching mode at a hidden artillery position behind the front line.

After the firepower commander confirmed the map, he drove the 20 self-propelled artillery towards a preset position closer to the front line.

At the same time, Amber, who was advancing in the city, was also a little anxious after receiving the information from the rear command.

Amber also had feelings for these veterans who had fought out of Robert IV.

Moreover, the teaching team was indeed the real elite of Atlas. Not to mention the combat effectiveness, it was difficult to replace the role in training alone.

"All aircraft! Speed ​​up the assault and support the special operations team!"

——

"Lieutenant Baninger! The enemy's firepower is too strong, we can't rush over!"

In the communication channel, the commander of Group A shouted loudly in the background sound of "gun sonata".

"Don't rush, defend your position, and retreat directly when necessary!"

Baninger answered while shooting at an imperial soldier on the ground who was still struggling to raise his weapon.

Just after he led the team out of the window and launched a round of "heavenly justice" style assault, the team of imperial soldiers outside who tried to outflank were instantly wiped out.

"Boss has come to support us. Since the enemy set an ambush to eat us, let's hold them back!"

Baninger looked around and confirmed that there were no fish that slipped through the net on the ground and continued:

"The most important thing is to ensure your own safety first! You find a good cover first, I will call for artillery support!"

While Baninger was talking to Group A, he made a "smoke-blocking" gesture to the players around him, and the other players of Group B immediately understood.

They first rushed to the corner of the building and used micro rocket nests and anti-vehicle missiles to repel a round of assault by imperial infantry + multi-legged tanks.

One of the two multi-legged tanks was directly destroyed, and the other was cleared of sensors and other debris on the surface by rockets, and several infantrymen around fell down.

Then, two players with quadruple multi-functional launch chambers installed on their shoulder armor emptied the thermal smoke bombs in one breath.

Through several attitude control nozzles on the missile body, which are powered by compressed gas, after adjusting the trajectory and dispersion position, the eight smoke bombs that exploded in the air directly blocked the street in front of them.

Taking this opportunity, the members of Group B, led by Baninger, rushed through the street at high speed, braving the enemy's probing shots in the smoke.

And Baninger also began to call for long-range fire support during this process.

The fire coordination officer of the rear command soon saw a request for "fire support" with a very high priority.

After seeing that the request came from the special operations team, he immediately transferred this "request" to the forward strike team that was already prepared.

"FDC, this is SAT, now we need emergency long-range fire support, please cover the coordinates YD772481 with fire.

The target is estimated to be a mixed force composed of mechanized infantry, combat vehicles, and HCP.

Please give priority to using terminal-sensitive bombs and anti-personnel anti-personnel bombs, high-throw trajectory, and dispersion method of standard 2. The strike unit can attack when it is ready, over!"

Baninger reported all the key information for requesting long-range fire support in one breath, and his words were directly input into the terminal of the fire command vehicle after being recognized by the combat auxiliary AI.

After confirming that the information was correct, the fire commander at the other end of the communication transmitted it to his 20 self-propelled artillery pieces.

These self-propelled artillery that have deployed the hoe raised the barrel high, and the automatic loader in the turret also selected the relevant ammunition based on the information shared by the data link.

"SAT, this is FDC. The fire strike will start in 5 seconds. A total of 5 rounds of strikes will be carried out. It is expected that the first round of strikes will hit the impact point in 82 seconds. Please leave the strike area in time. I wish you good luck. Over!"

"Thank you for your support! SAT call completed!"

After confirming that friendly artillery fire was about to arrive, Baninger gave the order for the entire team to enter the nearest building and hide.

The coordinates he just reported to the fire commander were the stadium gate and the surrounding area.

Nearly a minute and a half later, as a deafening explosion sounded in the streets outside, long-range fire support from friendly forces also arrived as scheduled.

In 20 seconds, 20 self-propelled artillery poured a full 100 rounds of terminally sensitive bombs and anti-personnel anti-personnel bombs into this area.

Then they immediately put away their picks, put down their artillery, and began to run away.

After all, we still don’t know how many self-propelled artillery pieces the Empire’s remnants have left. If the opponent engages in counter-artillery operations, it would be very dangerous to stay in this relatively forward position, where they may have already entered the attack range of the opponent’s artillery.

Judging from the current performance of the coalition's anti-artillery radar, the enemy's artillery shells can already calculate the coordinates of the artillery position before they fly to a high point.

Assume that the anti-artillery radar performance of the remaining imperial troops is similar, and self-propelled artillery is also retained to perform anti-artillery operations.

So theoretically, 10 seconds after the self-propelled artillery unit of the coalition fires the last round of shells, their artillery will also fire back.

Naturally, the fire commander did not want to capsize the ship in the gutter, so after the fifth round of salvos, he immediately issued an order to shift positions.

In the city, after the tremors of the earth stopped, Baninger and the members of Group B used the various messy things in the room to cover themselves and cautiously approached the edge of the hall on the first floor.

The smoke bombs on the street outside the building have been blown away by the shock wave of the shell explosion. On the quiet street are vehicles blazing with fire, and the corpses of imperial soldiers who were unable to hide themselves are lying on the ground.

But at this moment, an HCP with blackened armor suddenly emerged from another street, breaking the moment of silence.

A huge heavy particle cannon has been deployed on its shoulders, and Baninger can even see a blue light glowing in the accelerating orbit.

"grass"

The veteran felt as if time had stood still, and he even felt as if a revolving door of life had appeared in front of his eyes.

But an 'inhuman' howl came from the communication channel, waking him up abruptly.

"Ahhhhhh! Don't touch my soldiers!!!"

The dark red steel giant was like a hero who appeared at a critical moment in a traditional play, carrying a shield and gliding to the building where Baninger was located.

In the flash of lightning, Baninger even saw the sparks caused by the machine's mechanical feet rubbing on the ground, as well as the Mach rings faintly visible in the flames of the attitude control nozzles on the right side of the machine.

The next second, the raging heavy metal ion jet bombarded the deflection field deployed by the machine body, and the wildly dancing silver-white electric snakes seemed to change the color of the world.

At the moment when the bombardment ended, Amber threw away the nearly useless shield, held the plasma heavy sword in both hands, and rushed forward with a step forward slash.

The opposing pilot obviously did not expect that an enemy HCP would rush out at this point. He kept retreating in panic, and Amber cut open the cockpit before he could even take off his secondary weapon.

The giant sword in Amber's hand, which had been cut all the way, finally reached its limit and broke into two pieces after completing the blow.

Fortunately, the 15 HCPs that followed him in the assault also arrived on the battlefield. After he controlled the machine body to load the fighting spike mounted on the outside of the robotic arm, the five fastest-running Holy Shields were already protecting him behind him.

"Baninger! Are you okay?"

After hearing Amber's words, Baninger quickly glanced at the command interface.

Fortunately, the members of the special operations team are still there, but almost everyone is injured, and the ammunition reserve is almost empty.

"Boss, we are fine! But it is difficult to continue fighting!"

"Copy that, stay still and wait for follow-up troops to respond!"

After saying this, Amber controlled the machine and rushed to the door of the gymnasium.

At this time, the Imperial soldiers and combat vehicles that survived the bombardment had gathered and were guarding behind bunkers near the stadium.

Viscount Drake and others also climbed out of the overturned armored vehicle and were now standing at the main entrance of the stadium. A fanatic with an arm missing was standing in front of them with a shield raised.

"Order the troops to surrender! Viscount Drake, you have no reason to continue fighting!"

Amber's voice came out through the machine's speakers.

"You have fought until today despite being abandoned by the navy. Whether it is for your emperor or for your own honor, it is enough!

Don't let your soldiers die anymore, lay down your weapons and surrender, Atlas will guarantee the safety of all of you! "

Viscount Drake, who was surrounded by staff officers, raised his eyebrows. He didn't expect that the other party already knew his true identity, but now was not the time to pay attention to these.

He smiled calmly, then said:

"Sir, you sound like a commander? If so, then I have to admit that you are indeed a strong opponent, but why do you think you have already won?"

"You mean, you still have a few tactical nuclear bombs in your hand? "

Amber said, looking at the tactical map of the ten HCPs that had been distributed around the gymnasium. They did not rush to the gymnasium like Amber and the five Holy Shields.

Instead, they dispersed around to find the last few remaining HCPs of the enemy's nuclear strike teams.

Before returning to the base, in addition to monitoring the war zone, another important task of RQ220 was to find those undiscovered nuclear strike teams.

But both RQ220 and the attacking troops reported that they had not found any traces of these HCPs.

So Amber was guessing from the beginning whether the remaining HCPs carrying tactical nuclear bombs were with the enemy's headquarters, ready to "burn together".

This is why Amber brought HCP to strengthen the company's advance Another reason for the "decapitation operation".

And now, while Amber and Viscount Drake were talking, these ten HCPs that had activated optical camouflage and dispersed to search had successively locked onto the five nuclear strike HCPs lurking in the surrounding area.

The nuclear strike HCPs that had activated the launch box and were on standby could not turn on the stealth mode as before.

So it was easy for the Atlas HCPs that were ordered to find them to find them.

However, before Amber's order, these pilots did not act rashly.

After all, it was a tactical nuclear bomb, a killer weapon that could wipe out their own troops if they were not careful.

On the other side, Amber and Drake were still negotiating.

"That's right, if you don't want the city to be destroyed, then let your troops withdraw." Drake looked firm, with no intention of surrendering.

"Your Excellency, this battle does not need to go to this point"

"No! This is the honor of our imperial soldiers!"

"Honor? Detonating a nuclear bomb and dragging the entire city's civilians to their graves is called honor? "

Amber laughed at Drake's words. He felt that the Imperial Viscount in front of him had gone crazy because he was desperate.

"You federals don't know what honor is," Viscount Drake continued.

But Amber had decided not to waste time with him.

"Do it! "

As he issued the order on the command channel, the ten HCPs that had been prepared immediately removed their optical camouflage and rushed towards the target.

Based on the analysis of the two captured nuclear strike HCPs, Amber and his team already knew that as long as the launch box and the HCP were separated, the pilots in the HCP would not be able to launch these tactical nuclear bombs.

So these HCPs, which acted in groups of two, were aiming to dismantle the opponent's launch box.

Before the nuclear strike HCPs that were targeted could react.

These two-machine teams, one person controlled the body and held the shield and crashed directly into it, while the other HCP behind the side took the opportunity to rush up and slashed the heavy sword at the connection between the HCP and the nuclear bomb launch box.

As the launch boxes were cut down one by one, the emergency safety devices on them took effect at the same time, and the green light representing "ready to launch" also went out.

"Safe!"

"Safe! "

The teams carrying out the assault mission spoke one after another in the communication channel, but before Amber could breathe a sigh of relief, a terrified voice suddenly sounded.

"There is no warhead in the Boss launch box!"

"What?!"

At this moment, Amber felt a chill on his back, and he looked at Viscount Drake in front of him through the full-circle cockpit.

The military noble of the Star Dragon Empire took out an exquisite mechanical pocket watch from his arms and took a look, then a relieved smile appeared on his face.

"For the Empire."

"For the Empire."

In several buildings distributed in the southern war zone of the city, five imperial officers in neat uniforms said this at the same time as they watched the countdown on their respective terminals end.

Then, without hesitation, they activated the mechanical detonator connected to the nuclear warhead next to them.

The next moment, five rising "little suns" illuminated the southern urban area of ​​​​Ptolemy City.